


Mr. Nobody

by Silex



Category: craigslist found footage posts - Trevor Henderson | slimyswampghost
Genre: Childhood Friends, Creepy Fluff, Gen, Monsters, Moving, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:20:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,054
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29232168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silex/pseuds/Silex
Summary: Thomas didn't want to move to a new house, but his parents won't listen to him. Thankfully he knows someone who will...
Relationships: Basement Creature & Family
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 6





	Mr. Nobody

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Senri](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Senri/gifts).



“Mom says that the house isn’t big enough,” Thomas whispered fearfully into the vent along the floor, hidden away in the corner of the basement. His parents didn’t know about the vent. Ever since he’d found it one day when lifting up the pieces of fake wood on the laundry room floor it had been his little secret, something strange in the house that only he knew about. He’d hoped to get down to the dirt beneath and dig a hole to hide things, but instead there’d been weird plastic stuff and below that, concrete and the vent.

“Now that Grace is getting big enough to need her own room mom wants her office back.”

There might not have been anyone listening, but sometimes it helped just to talk.

“Dad says we’re going to have to move.”

According to mom and dad, they’d already moved once because of work reasons so it shouldn’t have been a big deal, but Thomas had been too small to remember, so in his mind it didn’t count and it was a big deal.

Mom talked about a house out in the country where they could have a big yard with room for a dog.

Dad tried to bribe him, saying that they could build a treehouse in the woods behind the house they picked out, a secret hiding place for Thomas and all his friends.

Thomas didn’t want a yard, a dog, or a treehouse in the woods though, because he was certain that none of those houses would have a basement with a fake wood floor that pulled up.

Even if there was, there was no way there’d be a vent beneath where wind sometimes whistled up and strange noises echoed like it was much, much larger down where he couldn’t see.

“Mmmmhmmove…”

The whispery, hissy reply came long enough after he’d spoken that Thomas knew it wasn’t an echo.

Mr. Nobody was there which was good, because he really needed to talk this over.

“Yeah, they want to move to a new house with more rooms.”

After a thoughtful pause where things tapped and pinged somewhere deep in the darkness past the vent, then, “More rooooomsssssssss.”

“Because Grace is too big to sleep in her crib in mom and dad’s room,” Thomas said quickly, just in case Mr. Nobody had been too far away to hear the first part of what he’d said.

Mom and dad thought that Mr. Nobody was just an imaginary friend, but he was very real and lived below the basement. Thomas just hadn’t shown them the vent, because he was pretty sure he’d just get in trouble for pulling up the floor the way he’d gotten in trouble for pulling up a big patch of moss in the front yard the other week.

“I told mom and dad that we can’t move because I want to stay here with you, but they say that when the time comes you’ll move with us.”

Which said a lot about how mom and dad thought, because they never explained their logic, just that they were sure Mr. Nobody would somehow be there, waiting for them in the new house. Maybe they knew better, but he still wanted an answer.

“Will you come with us?”

It was worth asking, though Thomas could guess what the answer would be because Mr. Nobody had never even come into the basement from where he was. Trying to envision him going outside and riding the bus or taking a plane to get to wherever mom and dad decided to move to was impossible. Thomas wasn’t even sure if there was a way for Mr. Nobody to get out from beneath the vent, when he moved he sounded way too big to get up through it, but he had to have gotten in there somewhere, so maybe there was a way.

Even if there was, Mr. Nobody had never come up and Thomas got the feeling he was very shy.

A soft, worried wheeze drifted up through the vent and Thomas was afraid he’d upset Mr. Nobody.

“Nooooo.”

“I thought not,” Thomas frowned, peering into the darkness beneath the floor, “But mom and dad said you would.”

“Hmmmmm.”

The vent shook a little as Mr. Nobody hummed to himself.

Faint scraping noises made Thomas think that Mr. Nobody might have been pacing, walking back and forth, maybe peering up into the small rectangle of light above, seeing his face in stripes through the vent.

That was a funny thought, in the way that funny could mean weird, not in the silly way.

Thomas had never seen Mr. Nobody, though he’d asked a few times if he could. For some reason Mr. Nobody found his asking amusing and would just laugh and laugh.

If not for the scraping and humming Thomas might have worried that Mr. Nobody had left, as he sometimes did during their conversations, because Mr. Nobody was an adult, that much he was clear on, even if there was a lot of things he didn’t say about himself.

Mr. Nobody was an adult with adult things to worry about.

But that also meant he might have ideas on how to solve things.

“Is there anything we can do?” Thomas urged, hoping that Mr. Nobody wouldn’t do the thing that adults sometimes did where they ignored the problem and started talking about something less important. Like dad saying that they could build a treehouse at a new house when Thomas said he didn’t want to move in the first place.

The noises of pacing stopped.

“I really don’t want to leave,” Thomas pleaded, “I don’t want to move even if mom and dad say it’ll be like an adventure. I’m scared.”

“Hmmm, hmm, hmmmm, hmm,” soft, almost words humming, like the noise of a lightbulb in an otherwise silent room, except much, much louder, then Mr. Nobody gave an answer.

“I haaave a plan.”

The relief Thomas felt was palpable. Of course Mr. Nobody would come through for him. Now all that remained was to wait and see what the plan was. He listened to the shuffling footsteps fading into the distance, hardly able to contain his excitement. It might take time, but he had help now so it wasn’t so bad.

Mr. Nobody would take care of things.


End file.
